Rohan Dennis: time trial perfectionist and Kelderman nightmare who never really found his place in the world stage

Every year numerous cycling stars hang up their bikes, some of whom we honor annually with a salute in our Stopped series. Rohan Dennis is one of the men we wave goodbye to at the end of 2023, after a career of peaks and valleys yet mostly as an incredibly talented rider. IDL Procycling sets it all out once again!

Adelaide-born Dennis began his athletic career as a swimmer, after which he discovered cycling by accident. He turned out to have a talent for cycling as well, a lot of it. Like many of his compatriots, his first talent was on the track, where he and his mates became world junior pursuit champions in 2008. In 2009 he joined the Jayco team - not to be confused with the current Jayco AlUla;

He did so as a solid time trialist, as evidenced by his performance at the 2007 World Junior Time Trial Championships. Also at Jayco his hard riding skills quickly came to the fore: in his first year he finished seventh in the time trial of the prestigious Thuringia Tour and fourth in the Herald Sun Tour, behind such arrived top riders as Bradley Wiggins and Svein Tuft. In 2010, he additionally finished handsomely fifth at the World Time Trial Championship for Under-23s, which at the time was won by Taylor Phinney.

Dennis cycles around lost at Rabobank after move to Europe

Dennis caught the attention of the big teams with his performance and decided to move to Europe, where he started racing for Rabobank's training formation in 2011. That did not turn out to be a good match, as Dennis could not ground himself in Europe and also had trouble with the Dutch way of working and directness. After one year he left the team with his tail between his legs.

In 2012, Dennis - who returned to Jayco - flourished completely. A continental-level rider, he finished handsomely fifth in the Tour Down Under, behind such arrived vedettes as Simon Gerrans, Alejandro Valverde and Michael Rogers. He also won the youth and mountain jersey in that race and later that year managed to win the Thuringia Rundfahrt and finish second at the World Championships against the clock for underprivileged.

Numerous teams were interested, including Jonathan Vaughters' Garmin-Sharp. With that team Dennis signed for the year 2013, in which he stood out especially with a handsome eighth place in the Critérum du Dauphiné. He also got to start in the Tour de France for the first time, where he had to abandon after eight days. In the fall, he won the Canadian stage race Tour of Alberta.

Dennis raises eyebrows with sudden move to BMC

2014 was an odd year for Dennis in many ways. He impressed with his time trial skills in such races as the Critérium International, Tour of Romandie, Tour of California and Tour of Switzerland, but suddenly switched to BMC with immediate effect at the beginning of August. The reason? He was eager to work with compatriot Allan Peiper. 'Instead of postponing the inevitable, we came to an immediate transfer,' Vaughters said at the time.

On behalf of that team, he immediately rode out his first major tour with the Vuelta, then went on to win the World Team Time Trial Championship and himself fifth in the individual time trial. It proved to be a good ground for 2015, where Dennis kicked off immediately with overall victory in the Tour Down Under and, moments later, the World Time Trial record. After a spring that didn't quite work out, he was included in BMC's Tour team for the edition that started in Utrecht.

With Tony Martin, Fabian Cancellara and also Tom Dumoulin, many riders competed for the win in the 14 km long opening chrono, but it was Dennis who made mincemeat of the competition. He finished five seconds ahead of Martin and Cancellara and thus took the first yellow jersey of the Tour, although he lost it in the following fan stage in Zeeland;

2016 was the year in which Dennis focused mainly on the Games in Rio de Janeiro, but there he was unable to achieve more than a fifth place finish. At the World Championships in Qatar, he finished sixth against the cook, while in the Eneco Tour that year he disappeared from the race in leading position after a crash. 2017 was also a transitional year in terms of major victories, although he did win stages in the Tour of Switzerland, Tour of the Alps and Tirreno-Adriatico. He also got to wear the red leader's jersey in the Vuelta after winning the team time trial on day one.

2018 was a season in which the world was once again at Dennis' feet. He achieved success in prominent races such as the Abu Dhabi Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico, Tour of Romandie and the Giro d'Italia, in which he wore the pink for several days, completing his trilogy of leader's jerseys in grand tours. In the fall, he pulled out all the stops for the World Time Trial Championship in Austria, where Dennis won by more than a minute ahead of number two Dumoulin after two time trial victories in the Vuelta. It also earned him a fat contract with Bahrain-Merida.

Dennis doesn't find a good match in Bahrain and cycles pink dream Kelderman to pieces

That turned out not to be a happy move at all: Dennis won only one time trial for that team and even quit the French Tour the day before the Tour de France time trial out of dissatisfaction with the equipment provided. At the World Championships in Yorkshire, he struck back with another world title in late September, although shortly thereafter it appeared that Bahrain had shown him the door a piece earlier. Dennis went to the UCI for a ruling, but got zero on that. INEOS eventually picked him up for 2020, where he abandoned the dream of becoming a classification rider. 'I started eating more, then less. I was on the dangerous road to a complex or disorder," he said of the problems that came with that for him.

The man from Adelaide could not race much in his first months for the multi-million dollar British squad, as the coronavirus broke out in 2020. Dennis struggled with the lockdown and also spoke out openly against it, after which he was criticized and deleted his social media in response. Fortunately for him and everyone else, racing was able to resume late that year, which Dennis did particularly superbly in the Giro d'Italia. In the Italian round, he eliminated pink jersey Wilco Kelderman in the final stage over the Stelvio, in favor of his own leader Tao Geoghegan Hart.

It would instantly be the only grand tour Dennis finished in his two years at INEOS. 2021 was again largely dominated by an Olympic mission, but this time the Jumbo-Visma duo of Primoz Roglic and Tom Dumoulin were too strong in Tokyo. The Dutch team, meanwhile, was considered the cradle of time trial, so the Australian decided to head in that direction.

Dennis crucial for Roglic in years at Jumbo-Visma

Dennis was brought in by Merijn Zeeman and co as the main reinforcement of the grand tour block, but could not make the Tour selection in his first season with Jumbo-Visma. However, he did play a crucial role in Roglic's Vuelta victory. Dennis began his second year with Richard Plugge's team with a handsome stage win Down Under, before announcing on Feb. 10 that 2023 would be his last year as a pro.

In this he was flown in last minute as a replacement for Robert Gesink and Tobias Foss in the Giro, in which he was again important to Roglic as a hard rider. Afterwards, he worked toward one last trick at the World Time Trial Championships in Scotland, but there there was no more than a seventh place. It immediately turned out to be his last race, as an injury kept him off the bike. 'He would have deserved a nicer farewell, but that's just the way it is, 'Jumbo-Visma communicated'.

We will remember the headstrong Dennis as someone who could ride his bike incredibly hard, but - as befits a good time trialist - could also be incredibly good at pain. During his career, this did not always make it easy for him physically and mentally, but nevertheless he is left with a career and list of honors that you can say U to.